The Christmas Contract - 2018

I was on a cleaning break yesterday, so we picked a Christmas movie and got out the bingo cards.

Jack and Jolie are in Louisiana for different reasons. Jack agreed to pretend to be Jolie's boyfriend to make her ex, Foster, jealous. Jolie is celebrating Christmas in the most Louisiana place ever. Jack has to ghostwrite a romance novel set in Louisiana, and he has a weird list of "plot points." It's more like a checklist but whatever.

This movie was strange. I refuse to address the absurdity of the contract. The family was suspicious from the very start. I don't know what these two did on the plane trip from New York, but it definitely wasn't going over their story. Also, Jack wasn't able to finish a romance novel. Weird. Anyway, they make Jack sleep in a Louisiana spare office, because apparently this huge house doesn't have enough bedrooms upstairs. This humongous house.

Jolie has a few run-ins with her ex and his oily hair. Jack checks off a few of the to-dos off his plot events. I'm not sure how a turtle rustling a tree counts as fleeing from danger, but with imagination, he turned it into an alligator. 

The conflict in this movie was dumb. Jolie finds the list and gets mad. She won't let Jack explain, but he doesn't help by calling it "work stuff" even though he's already declined to write the book. Then, once they reconcile, Jolie is on board and wants him to write it because it is now based on a true story.

The movie is pretty bad for bingo. There's no snow (Louisiana), and it doesn't feel Christmas-y. Only one of us got a bingo, and it wasn't me. Jack was okay as a character, but Jolie was irritating. I blame her parents. They just brushed off the whole "I lied about having a boyfriend." Her mom even told her she had nothing to apologize for. I'm sorry, what?! Pass on this one.

  

Snowed Inn Christmas - 2017

Movie night! We decided on some more Hallmark bingo. Well, this isn't officially Hallmark, but you get the idea. We had a bit of luck last week, but my daughter picked this one because she was tired of me "complaining" I needed my 'quaint lodge/inn' square. I can't help it that my inn square is in a strategically inconvenient location!

Two completely different journalists are sent to Aspen to fight for their job at a magazine. It's weird, because the boss claims she's sending her two best writers, but only one of them will have a job afterwards. Umm, what? Moving on...

Jenna is extremely organized and neat. Kevin is unorganized and a slob. These people are extreme, even though most people fall somewhere in between. I mean, Kevin is loud and unruly on the plane. He even takes off his shoe right in Jenna's face. Anyway, a weird storm causes their plane to land in Santa Claus, Indiana. The storm is so bad, there is no way in or out of Aspen for days! 

They end up at the Winters Inn, a building where Christmas itself threw up inside. I mean, it worked out great for us, we all ended up with multiple bingos. But that place was something else. And it had obvious Santa and Mrs. Claus running it. Not even subtle. Anyway, Kevin and Jenna fall in love in three days, save the Inn, and Christmas is the best day ever!

The plot itself was a bit unbelievable, but it wasn't one of the worst ones. I just want to mention the weather. I spent ten years in Indiana. You're not wandering around outside in the middle of the night in December without shivering or seeing your breath. Also, those pajamas? Not warm enough...

I'm letting this one slide. They fell in "love" in three days. Really? At least they didn't get engaged. I give it props for giving us so many squares on our bingo cards. This movie had a lot of fringe things we hadn't seen in a long time (stranding), so I liked it for that. I'm not sure I'd give it a Good Movie! review on its own merits, but my opinion can be swayed by bingo. There's been a drought around here, and it was a good night. Bingo Movie!

Tank Force (No Time to Die) - 1958

I saw this one on Tubi as leaving soon. It was released in the U.S. as Tank Force, but elsewhere as No Time to Die (with or without an exclamation point). Sometimes I wonder if I'm channeling my dad when I throw on one of these random war movies. When I was younger, he'd always throw these things on, and I'd moan and complain. Now they seem to be one of the first things I choose to watch. It seems this movie is based on a 1954 novel by Ronald Kemp called No Time to Die.

Anyway, this movie doesn't have any big names in it (to me), but it starts out with a tank battle. Spoiler: it ends with one as well. The Allies aren't doing too well. The Panzers are blowing things up, with crews abandoning tanks left and right. They're immediately taken prisoner where a few contrary individuals don't want to play by the rules of escape.

One contrarian (we'll call him Scarf) cares about himself. His wife was sent to a camp and killed, and apparently he failed in an attempt to blow up Goebbels. The other contrarian (The Pole - not kidding, he's listed that way in the credits) is a psycho killer who just takes people out because he feels like it. When a sandstorm combines the escape plans of the normal people and the contrarians, they're trapped together trying to get back to Allied territory.

I don't think the characters in this movie were very nice. The ones that lived that is. I was partial to Bartlett, but he was killed. I'm not sure why. He was sleeping next to the truck, the Arabs came up, looked at The Pole, then killed Bartlett for no reason. They didn't kill The Pole. Just confusing. I found the credits for this movie interesting. Half the people don't have actual names. It's all Camp Commandant, Italian Girl, The Pole, The Sheikh, German Srgt, etc. Poor actors...

Anyway, with the choices made on who died and who made it out alive, this movie was a bust. Two whole people made it out. One of them was the dreaded Scarf. The survivors asked to borrow a shovel, but then they bury the one sergeant and stick his hat on top. That tank isn't getting that shovel back! Thieves! Oh well, the movie wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't watch it again voluntarily.

The Chase - 1946

It's been a while, but I read about the restoration of this film in an article and ended up putting it on my watch list. It's based on a book by Cornell Woolrich (he might sound familiar for being the brains behind Rear Window). I mean, the film looked great, so good job on that one!

In this film, Scotty finds a wallet on the sidewalk. When he returns it, he's honest about removing enough for breakfast, impressing the man who owns it. Scotty immediately gets the chauffeur's job and starts driving around this insane guy, Roman. This man has magic pedals in the backseat of his car where he can control the speed of the car. It's interesting.

Scotty drives Roman's wife to the beach a couple times. She's desperate to get away, and she convinces Scotty to help her. What follows is a series of events that aren't what they seem. When Scotty wakes up, he has some weird memory issues and jets off to his doctor. I saw the end coming a mile away, and it wasn't super satisfying. I thought the movie was going to address the mental health thing a little more, but it just got brushed away like it didn't exist once he got his memory back. I would've liked to know more about that for sure.

The story itself had me interested, but I'm not sure about the execution. I'd like to read the book, but it looks like there were issues with Woolrich's estate, so I might have to do some hunting for it. If the main ideas were Woolrich's, I'm intrigued. The movie itself didn't wow me. It wasn't boring, I just don't think it was for me.

Marnie - 1964

This came on my radar as it's a Hitchcock film I haven't seen (or heard of), and it also stars Sean Connery. It's based on a novel by Winston Graham, an author I've read a few times. Those were entries in his Poldark series, though, and I was unaware he had written thrillers.

In this film, Marnie is a thief. She tries to buy nice things for her mother, because she's never quite felt the love she craves. Eventually, she steals from the wrong man, and she ends up married to a man who wants to help her. She just wants to be left alone, but he won't give up until he learns the truth about what made Marnie who she is today.

This movie is a bit of a strange one for me. The middle of it dragged a bit for me, but I was engaged at the beginning and the end. The truth of Marnie's past was complex (as I knew it would be), and it was well done. I liked Connery in this movie, and it was nice to see Alan Napier (Alfred - OG Batman). Tippi Hedren did an okay job, but her range was narrower than I expected for what she was dealing with. That might sound weird for a woman that would have complete freak-outs, but it's hard to explain.

There's one more negative to point out. I'm an animal person, so the scene with Forio (a horse) was disappointing. Movies can murder characters the whole film, but don't touch the animals! Putting that aside, I did enjoy the beginning and the end, but the middle and the death of Forio would prevent me from watching this one again. I'm sad to admit that since I liked the performances of Connery and Napier...I might look into reading the book one day.

Oppenheimer - 2023

I'd been wanting to watch this movie for a long time, but the family wanted to watch it together, so it had to be at the right time. The man J. Robert Oppenheimer intrigues me and knowing Cillain Murphy was in the movie was just icing on the cake.

This is the story of Oppenheimer's life. It isn't told in a linear way, which I believe makes it more interesting. Normally, that wouldn't work for me, but this time it kept the movie going. It doesn't sugarcoat Oppenheimer. He was a womanizer and definitely not a saint, but the things he did doesn't make him an obvious villain either. Many saw him as that because of his moniker as "father of the atomic bomb," but I'm not sure he deserves all that hate.

I'm not going to talk about the bomb. What I think about the atomic bomb is irrelevant to what I think about the movie. I will address the amount of time/what was shown about that part of his life. I saw some people felt not enough screen time was spent on the effects of the bomb, but that's not what this movie was about. It was about the man. The movie was already three hours, and deviating to spend an appropriate amount of time that topic would deserve wouldn't be practical.

I liked the movie, but the first hour felt a bit slow. The other watchers with me agreed with that. Even though a lot of the visuals were stunning, something about that beginning hour was just something of a slog. I also didn't understand the nudity/sex scenes. They were unnecessary. They never showed any sex with his wife, so why bother to show it at all? Anyway, once the plot picked up, I was entranced with the frameup they were setting up for Oppenheimer. It was unfair and frustrating.

The movie is getting a Good Movie! review, but it's not something I would watch over and over. It's tough to watch injustice in action, and the scenes at the end with Albert Einstein were sad. It was good to see Tom Conti again. I saw a lot of other familiar faces, but he was an especially welcome sight. Great acting by everyone, and a super visual spectacle. Good Movie!

 

A Christmas Kiss II - 2014

Last night was movie night. We decided to do some "Hallmark" bingo. In this case, it was technically MarVista bingo. I wasn't in charge of picking the movie. My confidence was low after The Nanny Christmas affair. This is a sequel, which we didn't know when we started it. On the list, it was called Another Christmas Kiss. Afterwards we looked into the first one, A Christmas Kiss, and we're pretty sure we've seen that one as well.

In this movie, a workaholic woman gets trapped in an elevator with a creep. Cooper snatches a kiss in the elevator (who is the weirdo that put mistletoe in an elevator?), and Jenna is into it. Later, she finds out the stranger she kissed is her boss's brother. After that, it's the usual formula.

Except...Sebastian! He is the highlight of this movie and makes it watchable. He's the coolest best friend to Jenna and always has her back. Whether it's pretending to be Jenna's boyfriend or pointing out Cooper's issues to him, Sebastian doesn't hold back. I think all of us cared more about Sebastian than anyone else. We wanted closure for Sebastian - Abby and a job.

And then there was this weird woman that kept popping up. We assumed she was part of the first movie, and after a bit of looking, she was the snooty high-level exec from the first movie. I hope she treats Helmut well. He was our other favorite character.

Only one of us got a bingo, and the movie itself was a bit of a slog when Sebastian wasn't around. Cooper had a frog smile and was a bit slimy. He bothered me, and I hated how he had so much confidence pushing his way into Jenna's life. And what was up with Jenna's dad? He was all about treating her like crap until Cooper did...what? He just pops up at the end. I'm guessing Cooper kidnapped her dad. It reminded me of the stupid nanny movie. Why do these men not care when their kids are upset, but when a stranger contacts them out of the blue, they suddenly have a conscience?

Dante's Inferno (An Animated Epic) - 2010

I saw this movie when I was randomly scrolling. I remember watching my husband play the video game for this, so I was interested to see it.

The plot is pretty straightforward. Dante's beloved Beatrice is taken to Hell because he betrayed her. He then travels through the Circles aided by the spirit Virgil. He will defeat many foes to get to his beloved and face Lucifer himself.

I really liked this one. It is rated R for a reason. It's pretty gory, and there's plenty of nudity in there. The thing that was driving me crazy was Dante's voice. It seemed familiar, so I had to look it up. He was Dijkstra on The Witcher. He also made a couple of appearances on the show Lucifer (appropriate). 

This one earns a Good Movie! seal. Good watch for sure. I'm drawn to this dark stuff for some reason...

Dr. Strange - 1978

I'll admit. Dr. Strange is my favorite Marvel character. Part of it is Benedict Cumberbatch, and part of it is his powers. I've read some of his original comics, and I really like those. Since we've been on the hunt for superheroes, I was excited to see if 1978 Dr. Strange could be a good fit. I had high hopes...

Morgan Le Fay is talking to a strange thing with glowing eyes. It tells her that she has three days to take out the Sorcerer Supreme (old man) or his successor. She heads to Earth to begin her quest. When she gets there, she stares people down, then she possesses a young woman so she can throw the old man off a bridge.

Where's Stephen Strange? Working at the hospital. He comes across the young woman who is afraid to fall asleep. She sees Morgan in her dreams and is afraid she'll die. Eventually, the old man seeks out Strange and tells him they can help the woman, but only if they work together. After that, he goes on an acid trip and sucks her out of the void. In the last 20 minutes, Dr. Strange (sorcerer) is born, and he turns a bouquet of flowers into a bird. I guess he does a bit more than that, but he doesn't really accomplish too much overall.

Okay, I was so open-minded. I was still on board with this movie even when we didn't have a Dr. Strange (superhero) after almost an hour had passed. But then it all started to fall apart. Wong took one for the team (don't worry, he's fine), and the old man was stuck in a spider web. Morgan gave Stephen some fairly cool robes (ignore the bling, it's a bit much), but then What. The. Heck. They turned his outfit into some weird pastel/silver star/yellow cloak nonsense.

What was accomplished in this movie? After 90 minutes, not much. Stephen Strange has embraced his destiny (I guess) and has decided to learn the ways of magic. Old guy is still around with his power waning, Wong is still hanging out making breakfast, and...Morgan is still making trouble. Yep, that's right. She may have lost the battle, but now she's helping young people embrace their destinies or something. I don't know. She was doing an infomercial on TV while Stephen was trying to take the young woman home.

I hate to say it, but this version of Dr. Strange has not made it into our superhero universe. This movie didn't really have the umph to recommend it. I'm not expecting nonstop action, but the story was weird. I'm usually okay with that, but in this case, he didn't even get rid of the villain! I needed more from this Stephen Strange. I'm ignoring this version of the timeline...

 

Fenomenal and the Treasure of Tutankamen - 1968

On the hunt for more heroes for our cinematic universe. I also love Egyptian treasures, so this movie intrigued me.

A group of thieves steal the mask of Tutankamen [sic]. There's a man trying to get the mask back, and the thieves are starting to take each other out.

This movie was probably the least enjoyable of the ones I've seen so far. I started out seeing a man all in black, apparently wearing dress pants and a belt as well, taking people out on a boat. Then the news was praising Fenomenal for the drug bust. After that was a booooring theft attempt that went on for like 15 minutes. Fenomenal was present at the theft of the actual mask and just watched. Not sure what that was about.

He was a normal dude. No special powers. Also, he was barely in it. He would punch people here and there, and then he'd disappear. I guess he smuggled himself to Tunisia in the roof of the plane? I don't know. There were a couple moments I found amusing, like when he was standing on the shore in his black outfit with a "disguise." The other one was when one of the thieves was trying to double cross another. The dude pushed the guy in the wheelchair into the ocean. Hilarious. (He was fine. He was faking, so it's fine.)

Other than those two moments, I wasn't having a good time. Fenomenal isn't a superhero. He kept getting punched, which is fine, but a lot of times it didn't make sense. For instance, at the sauna (?) there was this huge fight where none of the women left, and I never did understand why they were fighting. Pass. So disappointing...the poster on Tubi was so intriguing!

Poster on Tubi

Billion Dollar Brain - 1967

Scrolling through Tubi, I came across this movie. The title intrigued me, and I was ready for some excitement. Spy movie! Harry Palmer (our main character) is from a series of books by Len Deighton.

Harry (Michael Caine) comes home with his Corn Flakes and finds his previous employer, the Colonel, searching his home. The government wants him back for an important case, but Harry isn't interested. Right after the man leaves, Harry gets a call from a robot telling him he's received a key and 200 pounds. All he has to do is deliver a package. Harry agrees, and he's off to deliver eggs to Finland.

The plot of this movie is crazy. After Harry delivers the eggs to his naked friend, he finds a dead body and takes the job with the government. A man is trying to wage war on communism by starting a war between Russia and Latvia. Or something. The second half of the film, from when Harry goes to Texas until the end, is basically the crazy Texas oilman and his invasion.

I'm curious if Palmer is as useless in the book as he is in this movie. Basically, he doesn't serve a purpose. He doesn't collect the eggs for his government, he gets captured all the time, and he isn't even responsible for stopping Crazy Texas Man. I did like he was left out on the ice at the end of the movie. It seemed fitting.

The other thing I want to mention is the opening credits. They are so cringey. James Bond's first movie was in 1962, and I'm guessing these were supposed to mimic those. But they were awful. I don't know what they were thinking, but they should've done something different.

Overall, this movie started out ok, but it got boring pretty fast. Maybe the other movies in the series had some of the humor I saw glimpses of, but I was just confused. Palmer was the worst spy ever. My favorite character was the Russian Colonel Stok (Oskar Homolka). He was funny and crafty. Props to him helping me get to the end of the film.

The Devil's Party - 1938

I saw this movie when we were scrolling the other day, and I wanted to watch it. I had some time this morning, so I put it on. It's based on the book Hell's Kitchen Has a Pantry by Borden Chase.

Marty leads a gang of young criminals who meet in the basement of a building. When a robbery goes wrong, he takes the wrap and refuses to give up the names of the other kids who were with him.

Fast forward many years. Marty owns a business, but he's a bit ruthless. He has enforcers he sends out when a man won't pay his debts. The man dies, and one of the other friends, Joe, suspects foul play. Marty isn't happy about the crossover of his personal and professional affairs and tries to separate them. Unfortunately, Joe ends up dead, and his brother feels the need to avenge the death.

The whole dynamic between the friends fractures eventually, which is to be expected. The end also was pretty much what I expected. There wasn't anything spectacular that stood out to me, and I think the best part was the closed captioning. It was one of those times when I needed it since the audio wasn't super clear. The things that would pop up on the screen at time were amusing, so I had more fun with that than the movie itself. DEATH TO SQUEALERS!

A Nanny for Christmas - 2010

It's been a while since we've played Hallmark Bingo, so we picked this movie and got ready to play! Since Dean Cain was in this one, Mom wanted to see what he looked like. Unfortunately, that led us to the next hour and a half.

Okay, so a woman loses her job at an advertising firm, because she didn't know their client was left at the altar. Dean Cain has a hissy fit and keeps repeating, "MY WEDDING?!" fifteen times before storming out of the office. Weird. So, Ally asks her friend to see if she can hook her up with a job at this other lady's company. Due to some weird mix-up, she ends up being hired as a nanny. Instead of clearing things up, she goes with it. She promises to follow the weird, strict rules of the woman's house, but then proceeds to break literally all of them. She also wraps up the kids in her life of lying...

Ah, the lies. They start for no reason and continue for the same. She meets "raspberry scone man" AKA Justin, and immediately lies about who she is. Instead of just telling him she's the nanny, she says she works for the New York office for the husband. But...WHY?! She claims (later) she thought being a nanny wouldn't be enough for a bigtime executive, but she didn't know who he was when she met him. Garbage. This man deserves better for sure. For some reason, everyone forgives Ally at the end of the movie after her half-hearted apologies, which made me angry. And can we discuss the dad for just two seconds? This man doesn't care when the kids are upset he won't be there for Christmas, but an email from someone he's never met gets him on a plane home? And he shows up with a puppy he's trying to suffocate in a plastic tub?! You know they make carriers for those?! Or at least put some air holes in there...GAH!

And the icing on the crap cake that is this movie. When I went to find the cover, I found this travesty. Justin isn't even on the cover!!! I know they didn't even introduce an element of romance until after 1/3 of the way through the movie, but still. Give the man some respect. They put the kids on the cover! They put Dean Cain on the cover! And he was a strange Danny Donner chocolate man with a quick temper who showed up at the other company's Christmas party!

I wish Ally had left for Ohio before anyone called her. I love Ohio, and the state didn't deserve her, but Justin definitely deserves better! This movie was terrible. It should have been accidentally lost before anyone released it, and I wish the best for Justin. Everyone else in the movie is terrible and should leave him alone. Trash movie!

PS - No Bingos with this one...not even close.

The Man Who Walked Alone - 1945

This was a blind pick for movie night. I was excited to see Captain Midnight, Dave O'Brien, in the cast list.

Marion is on his way to the city. He's got his uniform in his suitcase, but he doesn't seem to want anyone to know who he is. A woman picks him up on her way to the city in a stolen car, and they end up getting caught. A quick call clears up that mess, but then they get arrested again when she convinces him to break into her "employer's home."

It soon comes out that Willie is actually Wilhelmina Hammond, a rich young woman running away from a marriage to a political candidate. Willie has seen the uniform and assumed he was a deserter, an assumption others will also make later on.

This movie was pretty good, but Willie was something of a weird one. She keeps telling everyone she's not getting married, and they just tell her okay, sure, and proceed to ignore her. She doesn't really stand her ground very well, so in my mind, she doesn't really deserve Marion. BUT, she's what he wants, so more power to him I suppose.

Anyway, there were some elements of a few movies in here. I was reminded of Bringing Up Baby (stolen car - the sheriff), The Philadelphia Story (oddball younger sister) and It Happened One Night (wealthy socialite fleeing marriage). All together, I suppose this one was okay, but I don't think I would go out of my way to watch it again. On top of the irritating Willie (who started out ok but got worse as the movie went on), I don't think I would've understood anything if we didn't have the closed captioning on. Middle of the road for me.

Argoman the Fantastic Superman - 1967

I was hunting for a new superhero to add to our universe, so I turned on Tubi and searched for superheroes. This movie popped up, and I felt like it might be a candidate.

 A man has "superpowers" and uses them to do things. I spent an hour and a half watching this, and I'm not entirely sure what I saw. I'll try to explain the plot. The Queen of the World steals the Royal Crown as a show of her power. Scotland Yard tries to hire our guy to hunt down the woman. Little do they know, he's already "seen" her. Eventually, he tracks her down and defeats her. 

This movie is wild. At first, I was a bit worried. He has the strangest house where a good chunk of the furniture is hanging from the ceiling. While that looks fun, it's just weird. He also wanders around in his robe. I understood why when he put on his "I'm at home" clothes. He had on a really awful ascot. It was just a hint of his taste in clothes, however.

Argoman has questionable morals. He steals things, crashes people's cars and is kind of a putz. He's sleazy to women, and he has a dude just hanging out next to a car behind a door in his house. When he changes into Argoman, his "superpowers" are not amazing. He wears a cape, but he can only leap about so I'm not sure what the point of it is. He also moves around in just a strange way, and sometimes he'll just laugh, "ha HA!"

The costumes in this movie are insane, and after the first half hour, it was pretty good. Up to that point, it was still interesting, but I'm not sure it would meet our high standards. The other thing is, this man definitely doesn't meet the qualifications for our heroes. At best he's an antihero, but I'm leaning toward villain. I need more input on that. But regarding the movie itself, I think it was pretty fun. I mean, when you start out with the knowledge that when this guy has sex he loses his superpowers for six hours, I immediately have questions. I think he'll be in the universe - we just have to find the right place for him. Good Movie!

Song of the South - 1946

This is one of the few older Disney movies I've never seen. I thought I had, but after watching it, the only thing I know is "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah."

A little boy is visiting his grandmother's plantation when he makes a couple new friends. He also finds a couple bullies. To deal with his problems, Uncle Remus tells Johnny stories of Br'er Rabbit. Johnny's mom thinks these are bad for him, but they are actually helpful. 

I liked this movie. I have to say I was more fond of the live action parts than the Br'er stories. I can't really narrow down why, I just was more involved with the relationships going on with Johnny, Uncle Remus, Toby, and Ginny. And Teenchy. I loved Teenchy. Uncle Remus (James Baskett) did a wonderful job on screen. He sang and acted really well, and I was always looking forward to scenes with him in it.

I'll briefly address the controversy about the movie itself. The portrayal of African Americans in this movie has caused a lot of tension over the years. The setting was a plantation for a reason. Uncle Remus is a character that tells stories from that era, and he is a freedman. What I saw was a kind older man helping a lonely boy. Johnny also found friends his own age from the area that could have been seen as questionable at the time, but no mention was made of who Johnny played with. It didn't matter if they were black or white, rich or poor. It was just kids playing together. 

Overall, I thought the story was sweet. Yes, there is child acting in this. I don't know how old Johnny's actor was, but sometimes he could pull off crying, and other times not so much. I enjoyed James Baskett the most in this movie (if we ignore the puppy). He really stole the show! Good Movie!

Murder by Death - 1976

I saw an article about this movie, saw some of the cast, and immediately tracked it down.

This movie is poking fun at 5 of the most famous detectives of fiction. Represented are Nick and Nora (David Niven and Maggie Smith), Charlie Chan (Peter Sellers), Sam Spade (Peter Falk), Miss Marple (Elsa Lanchester), and Hercule Poirot (James Coco). I'm not as familiar with the last two actors as I am with the others.

Truman Capote also appears in this, and there's a blind butler that brings a physical comedy to the movie that hits and misses. The whole movie is full of those to be honest. Looking at the movie through today's eyes, there's a lot people could get offended by (Peter Sellers playing the Chinese/Hawaiian detective for instance). BUT, if you're familiar with the detectives, you could get a few chuckles out of this movie. I did.

I liked the movie. Did all the jokes hit? No. But I was familiar with most of the detectives, so the pokes at them were funny. The only one I wasn't super familiar with was Sam Spade, but I knew a bit about him. He's the age of noir, and you can tell. The end was pretty funny, even though the cackling went on a bit too long. I'm giving it a Good Movie! review, but if you aren't familiar with the detectives being spoofed, I'm not sure you'd agree with me.

Skyscraper - 2018

My husband and I settled in to watch this movie. I knew a little bit about it, but he hadn't seen it.

A skyscraper (!) is making sure their safety procedures are adequate so they can be insured. They've hired the small company The Rock runs (because that's what happens), and they give him all access to the digital security measures. The tablet that runs everything is connected to facial recognition, so when the betrayal by his "brother" happens, they just have to shove the tablet in his face and viola! 

Screwing with the bad guys' plans are Rock's family. They were supposed to be seeing the pandas, but Timmy (I can't remember his name) ate a "weird candy," and so they're back early. Bad guys set a fire on the floor below the family's, turn off fire suppression and CHAOS!

There were so many crazy things that happened in this movie. It reminded me of San Andreas on the reality scale (meaning there's very little reality). I think the end cracked me up the most. This man, who through the entire movie has worked with little to nothing to solve problems, decides to sit on the floor, rocking back and forth and burn to death. Never mind the dead guys with frickin' parachutes or anything. I guess he ran out of duct tape...

Movie is pretty ridiculous, but it wasn't boring. I'm not going to give it a good review, for the sole purpose that I really didn't care about anyone, and I kept waiting for Timmy to fall into the fire (which he technically should have done a few times). I mean, the weak child (character, not actor) could sometimes barely breathe and other times was fine. Then he had the superhuman ability to hold onto his mom's back as she slowly (I think molasses moves faster) tightroped her way across that bridge and then tripped. I did learn the valuable life lesson of whenever something isn't working, all you have to do is turn it off and turn it back on - works every time!

 

Elysium - 2013

My husband and I were searching for something to watch together. He's not into movies without color, and he doesn't appreciate movies that are bad in a good way. We scrolled for a while until we came across this movie. We had no idea what to expect when we put it on.

In the future, the world is gross. It's polluted, overpopulated and all the poor people live on it. The rich people are floating on a huge space station (Elysium), which actually looks pretty cool. It's also able to be seen from Earth. Max is trying to work and keep his head down when an accident gives him five days to live. With nothing left to lose, he risks it all to get on Elysium where he can be healed. They have these things where people can lay in them and magically be healed. The poor people on Earth are just out of luck.

I thought the movie was pretty good for being a blind pick. There were a few things that I didn't understand, but whatever. I think of the weirdest stuff. Like when Max got the "armor," I was stuck on the fact he was stuck wearing that shirt forever now. The end was supposed to be happy I guess, but I think they just made the overpopulation problem worse. But woohoo! People are healed!! Anyway, if I don't stare at the plot too closely, I'll give this one a Good Movie! review for entertainment value.

The Spirit - 1987

I was on the hunt for more superheroes to add to our theoretical cinematic universe, and I noticed this movie. I put it on and waited to make my final decision. So far, we have The Pumaman and Supersonic Man.

A man's friend gets blown up and wants to be avenged. He thinks he's found a lead, but then he gets shot and falls in some water at the docks. He raises like a zombie at the weirdest cemetery I've ever seen and scares some kids. He takes one under his wing as his "Robin." After he recovers (which he did quickly - good job invisible doctor!), he pulls a tiny mask out of a drawer, and The Spirit is born.

This movie was weird. And I'm not talking about weird in a good way. The beginning was strong. Spirit's friend was dead, got blown up, then he stumbled out of the house to talk to his friend before dying again. The tone of the movie struck me as intentionally campy, which is the worst kind. I did get a couple of chuckles out of the movie, but all my joy was coming from the police commissioner. And he wasn't in it near enough to save this movie.

The Spirit doesn't make the cut. We have high standards for our cinematic universe!

Midnight Lace - 1960

This movie came on my radar partly due to the subject and partly due to the actors. I'm a fan of Rex Harrison, so I looked forward to watching it.

Kit Preston is a recently married American heiress living in London. In a thick fog, she hears a strange voice threatening to kill her. She rushes home and tells her husband, who brushes it off as a prank. When it happens again, it isn't something she's ready to push aside, but it's becoming hard for people to believe her. The inspector at Scotland Yard thinks it's a scheme by a neglected wife, and no one else has ever heard the voice.

There were hints early on that my man Rex was going to be a nefarious soul. The main one was that they introduced a character I would consider an alternate love interest. I just didn't want it to be Rex. Oh well. We can't have everything. Doris Day played the wife, and she irritated me a bit. I know he was messing with her mind, but for goodness' sake, if you're in the apartment alone (or watching a struggle), pick up a fireplace poker or something.

I suppose if I didn't like Rex so much, I would've enjoyed it more. If I try to put that aside, I guess the twists were well done. The "other man" was a bit shoehorned in there and a bit unnecessary. If he hadn't been in there, I don't think I would've figured things out as much as I did. Admittedly, I never had some of the details figured out ahead of time, so the movie gets credit for that. I'll give it a Good Movie! review for the enjoyment factor, but I'm so sad Rex was a villain...

Supersonic Man - 1979

This little gem has been watched a few times, but I shared it with the family over the weekend.

Speedo man is flying through space when he's told the earth needs him. He gets an epic sparkly outfit and proceeds to fly to earth (to the best theme song ever). When he gets there, he protects a woman who has the personality of a sheet of paper. When needed, he talks to his watch and turns into Supersonic Man. This superhero has TONS of neat little powers. The more you watch, the more you discover. 

Paper woman's father has been abducted for some reason, and Supersonic Man has to save the day. Honestly, I'm not really sure what the main McGuffin was in this one, I was just having fun watching things explode. The end is weird, but what else did I expect?

This movie made me want a crossover or a cinematic universe with Supersonic Man and Pumaman. And the craziest part? The Pumaman is actually mentioned on the Wikipedia page for Supersonic Man as similar! That cracked me up. Some of the family thought this one was better than Pumaman, but I think they each have their own charm. I think my youngest probably would lean towards Pumaman, only because she would cringe every time the theme song began to play. As a trumpet player, the music was giving her physical pain.

I would definitely watch this again. The ineptness of the men in the car tailing the daughter - hilarious. My favorite part is when Supersonic Man saves the daughter as she's being chased. But there are so many good parts, I can't list them all. If you liked Pumaman, I think you'd like this one. If they both sound insane and they never should've been made, you might want to pass. If you do want to watch it, I recommend watching it with friends. Laughing is more fun when you do it with friends! Good Movie!